


Chapter 5 (Part 2)

by Adge



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:29:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adge/pseuds/Adge





	Chapter 5 (Part 2)

# Chapter 5 (Part 2)

To the scholar’s room the reivers return   
To load more loot - but Lalli scout,   
Mage-eyed, a drip from a draught-vent   
Suspects and stares; astute Emil   
His sword-lord’s eye sends to the grate;  
Sigrun, warrior, well-tried foe-bane,  
Tested sword-earl, detects a troll –  
Puny little bastard, barely to Sigrun  
An enemy to fear – but for Emil a test:  
Attack it or run? The test is passed;  
Emil’s courage conquers his fear  
Saving his honour. Sigrun notices  
Emil’s victory, and divides the team,  
Each lone at first; leery Emil,  
Untried warrior, true follower,   
Reminds Sigrun of her command at start   
One team to form; his tentative words  
She chooses to wit as wisdom's mark;  
Alone herself, but Lalli scout  
And green Emil, artless sword-hand,  
She reappoints as a pair working,  
To search the holt, lest the sign means  
That the reif-house folds, fast in its deeps   
A strong troll-nest, in the strait house-ways  
A deadly threat. The three organised,  
She fixes tryst for fifteen minutes  
And disappears, the dead-room her sye.  
Emil, youngling, unused to war  
Turns to Lalli, lone-working scout  
And sees him gone to seek alone   
Unplanned, trystless. Plucking up heart,  
Callow Emil the corridor takes.  
But bold Sigrun seeks past the dead;  
She finds hidden behind the rests  
Of the blithe days blighted by the rash   
A barred doorway. Undoing the seal,   
A dern chamber, dark, unoccupied,  
The beds ruined; and racked in bonds  
A lone troll-corpse on a trashed mattress   
From pain released. Past these remnants   
A dank stairway down to a cellar  
Pooled with water and putrid drips  
Whose trickling slimes a troll-nest feed  
Safe from the cold. Sigrun withdraws,  
Reseals the door, and seeks Emil  
To leave the holt. With Lalli missed,  
Emil searches silent corridors  
And tucked corners until he hears   
His watch tell him that time has come  
For the appointed tryst at the parked car-holt  
With the rest of the team. His route back-tracks,  
Threading torch-lit through the shadows  
Until suddenly a soft creaking  
Round a corner – courage for Emil  
Takes time to drum, but he draws his knife  
Leaps the corner to lunge at a foe  
But the space is void – spit, blood and teeth  
On his terrified head tumble cascading  
From the ceiling above – in sickened disgust  
He sees his foe descend towards him   
Gore vomiting. Gagging and shocked   
He slams his torch in its slimy gob  
Shattering teeth as it tumbles down   
Bloody to the floor. He flees away  
Down the corridor from danger behind  
To danger before; a foe concealed,   
A long-legged troll lurking at a door  
Leaps and captures cautionless Emil   
His knife maims it – not sufficient   
To wane its strength. Struggling Emil,  
Defeat sensing, for Sigrun shouts  
Her stroke unheads the strangling troll   
Freeing Emil, but the freke behind,  
Blood-vile dribbling vomit-tooth belcher,   
Closes upon them. Cleanser Emil   
A can empties and cartridges triggers  
In its bubbling maw; the bang destroys   
Troll and passage; the purging blast  
Rupts the windows over waiting Mikkel   
He screams Tuuri to scramble the tank  
Dashes in to save Sigrun and Emil  
As the two reivers run from smoke-fog  
To the clear air. Cleanser Emil  
Turns for Lalli lost in the troll-holt  
As Lalli’s weight a window shatters  
Bolting for air – burly Mikkel   
In his arms catches cat-limbed Lalli,  
Sets him to ground. Safe in the cat-tank   
The troll-banes speed to a spot retreat  
Far from the sye. Sigrun war-maid  
Prowess rejoicing, praises Emil  
Foe-tried cleanser, fire-wielding wight,  
As a viking true – reveals her lust  
To sack and reive the city entire  
With acclaimed pair, cleanser Emil  
And forest gnome noita Lalli –  
Triumphant team. But with troll’s gut-filth   
Soused and sickened, senseless Emil  
Vomits his answer. Invening Mikkel  
Fearing the taint of contamination  
Washing directs. Way-skald Tuuri  
Conducts the crew to a dell concealed  
In Kastrup fort. They camp and rest,  
Unwind spirits and wash their clothes  
While Mikkel embarks on a book study  
Uncertain why Sigrun has chosen  
So random a set. Reading for war-maids  
Lacks attraction; she’d trusted to luck  
And her luck had worked for one volume  
A written account of the rash sickness  
In the patients held in the house they’d reft  
That Mikkel takes over Tuuri's call  
As skald to the team. As they turn to sleep  
Troll-reiver Sigrun foresees plenty  
Of joyful loot in the juicy spots  
Deep in the town; doubtful Mikkel  
Queries their skills; quest-earl Sigrun  
Scoffs at his doubts. Scout-noita Lalli  
Through sleep awakes in the wide gull-realm  
Of the mage kingry. The merry-dancers bright,  
Affording a glimpse, a far vision   
Of a red-haired boy, roust not the sorrow  
In Lalli’s heart, though a high-fluttering   
Sielulinto sea-blessing tern  
Accompanies Lalli on the corpse-cradler,   
The oceanic waste, shoreless and cold.


End file.
